


For Who Are We to Say

by VarjoRuusu



Series: For Who Are We to Say [1]
Category: The Blacklist (TV)
Genre: #redwedding fix-it, Dembe is a cutie, F/M, Graphically, Grumpy - Freeform, Hey I totally forgot Donald even existed, I may have gotten carried away a bit, I really liked this show before, Liz and Tom do not get married, Liz has a baby, Much Tom bashing, Not Tom, Oops, Red saves everyone, This story if for you if you think he's a stupid little shit, Tom dies, Tom is an ass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 18:43:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6482698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VarjoRuusu/pseuds/VarjoRuusu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Red?” Liz asked as she turned, her eyes flicking down to the gun and back up to his, terror suddenly filling her blue gaze.</p><p>“Lizzy, I'm here to ask you, to implore you, please, don't do this,” Red said, speaking to her and only her.</p><p>--</p><p>This is a fix-it to April 7th's episode where Liz and Tom are supposed to get re-married. This story comes on the heels of the announcement that the Interloper is getting his own spinoff, and thereby dashing all hope I had of him dying a slow and gory death while filled with bullets in tomorrows episode.</p><p>Please enjoy this overly fluffy Lizzington fix-it, in which Tom Keen is shot over a dozen times and the church collapses on his head. This is a story for all the people who think Tom Keen is an ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Who Are We to Say

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first time I've used any warnings. I may have gotten a little enthusiastic killing Tom. There's some rather colorful descriptions of bullets and drowning in ones own blood. I dislike Tom enough that I'm getting really sadistic with it. He is a horribly weak character and the epitome of the abusive manipulative jackass that the world seems to always have to put up with.
> 
> Also, this was meant to be a 500 word max. Oops.

“Surround this place, they'll be here any minute,” Red instructed, his guys fanning out and taking up defensive positions around the small and rickety old church. Red tightened his grip on the handle of the shotgun he carried and nodded to Dembe, who stood ready with a nondescript car. Red pushed the doors open and walked assuredly up the aisle.

“Red?” Liz asked as she turned, her eyes flicking down to the gun and back up to his, terror suddenly filling her blue gaze.

“Lizzy, I'm here to ask you, to implore you, please, don't do this,” Red said, speaking to her and only her. Cooper took a step back, Aram twitched nervously, as he always did around Red, and Samar glanced down at the text message on her buzzing phone.

“You stay out of this,” Tom started and Red leveled him with such a stare that it struck the other man silent.

“Red, this was my choice,” Liz said quietly, reaching out a hand and resting it on his arm, just above the elbow.

“Lizzy, you're not safe, they're coming for you,” Red said, his eyes imploring her to listen to him.

“Who's coming, Red? I thought we had dealt with everything,” she said, confused.

“So had I, dear one, so had I,” he replied sadly, soft enough that only she could hear over the din of sirens that suddenly sounded outside the church.

“We have to go,” Samar said suddenly, reaching for her gun.

“I'm not going anywhere,” Tom protested. Aram and Cooper were already following Samar out the door and into an SUV with one of Red's men.

“Lizzy, please,” Red said again and she stared at him for another moment before she nodded just the tiniest bit. And that was when all hell broke loose.

The doors of the church blew open and gunshots split the air. Tom dove behind a pew as Red threw himself in front of Liz, holding her close as they fell to the ground behind the opposite pew.

“Red,” Liz whimpered. “Don't let them hurt my baby,” she begged and he nodded, holding her closer. His own men poured through the door the other three had escaped through and laid down a cover fire of bullets and flash grenades. It gave Red the time to get Liz out and safely in the car with Dembe before they started throwing real grenades out the front and into the swarm of shooters in black tac gear moving toward them.

“Dembe, where's Red?” Liz asked, trying to twist around and see out the back window, but between her large belly and her dress, she couldn't see the church they were fleeing from anymore.

“He will come,” Dembe assured her. “He told me to take you to safety, then he will come.”

“What about Tom?” she asked quietly, not sure why she was asking. Red was right, Tom didn't deserve anything to do with her or their baby, but she had wanted to try, wanted to make it work.

Dembe was silent and Liz took that as a sign that Tom wasn't coming. She sighed and leaned back against the seat one hand over her stomach as she gazed out the window. They made it to the airport with no issue and soon they were in Red's jet over the Atlantic. When the Sat phone rang, Liz sat up further in her chair, holding the blue shawl that had been with the change of clothes that awaited her, tighter around her shoulders.

“It is Raymond,” Dembe informed her before he answered the phone.

“It's done,” Red said, glancing at the carnage around him. The church was in ruins, the walls shining through with rays of light from every one of close to two thousand bullet holes. The walls wouldn't stand much longer, but they had won. The day was theirs, the goons sent by whoever in the Kabal just couldn't leave well enough alone lay dead. Only one of Red's men had been killed, two injured, and the real police were on their way. “Tell her I'm coming soon,” Red said, hanging up the phone when Dembe confirmed he would.

“You...can't...” Tom's weak voice sputtered and Red looked down at him, his face a mask. It was impossible to tell if the slight curve of his lips was sympathy, or satisfaction.

“You will never hurt her again,” Red said, slowly, quietly, enunciating every word, every syllable, every letter.

Tom coughed, but he couldn't make his voice work anymore. There was too much blood in his lungs, his throat, his mouth. Red just watched him, gasping like a fish, until his chest stopped fighting to rise and he was still, eyes wide and blood still pulsing slowly from his open mouth.

“You never deserved her,” Red said as he shouldered the empty and still warm shotgun and left the church, only moments before the walls gave out, structural integrity damaged beyond repair, and the roof collapsed, burying Tom and half a dozen men below the old timbers.

On the plane, thirty-five thousand feet above the ground, five hundred miles away, Liz suddenly screamed, hands clutching her stomach.

“Dembe, I think the baby's coming,” she gasped. “It's too early, it shouldn't be for another six weeks.”

“Elizabeth, you must breath. Your baby is coming because you are in shock,” he said calmly. “Raymond told me this may happen, everything is ready.”

Liz nodded, trying to breath through her nose and keep hyperventilating at bay while Dembe rolled up his sleeves and went to the cupboard.

“If this was going to happen, why did it wait until now? Shouldn't it have happened during the shootout?” she asked, wincing at another contraction. "Or any other of the number of times I've been beaten, shot at, suffocated in the last seven months,” she seethed, using her mounting anger to fight through the painful contractions.

“The human body is a strange thing,” Dembe said as he spread hospital sheets on the couch of the plane, creating a better environment for the baby to be born. “You are strong, Elizabeth, but everyone has their breaking point. Your body knows that it is safer for the chile outside of your womb, then in, now. You were able to hold on much longer then most women, especially with the danger you have been in.”

“Tom's dead, isn't he?” she gasped as Dembe lifted her from the chair and placed her gently on the couch.

“It is likely,” he nodded. “But even if he is not, Raymond will never let you see him again. Not when he can put your baby in harms way, simply by existing.”

“And being with Red won't do that?” Liz gasped as another strong contraction hit her. "Death follows him like a shadow."

“Raymond will do everything in his power to protect you and your baby,” Dembe said softly. “Even if it means never seeing you again.”

Liz's heart clenched in time with her contraction and she screamed. Dembe calmly and carefully put gloves on and pushed up the blue maternity dress she had changed into only an hour before, and examined her.

“You are only in the early stages, Elizabeth,” he said softly. “It may be many more hours yet. Would you like something for the pain?”

Liz nodded, her teeth gritted and Dembe administered a shot of strong, but safe painkillers, and soon she was asleep, blissfully out of pain and the most relaxed she had been in months.

The baby came just as they were landing in Geneva, Liz's screams echoing throughout the small plane as the baby slipped into Dembe's waiting hands, his face split in a wide smile as he wrapped the wriggling newborn in a soft blanket and cleared the nose and lungs.

“It is a girl,” he said happily, placing the baby in Liz's waiting arms. “She has your mouth, Elizabeth,” he said as he attended to the rest of what came after childbirth. Liz could only stare down at the perfect little baby in her arms, hardly hearing Dembe telling her to push once more and expel the placenta after the cord was cut, too entranced by the tiny eyes and mouth, nose, fingers, chin, all of it.

“She's beautiful,” Liz whispered and she knew she was gone. She had considered giving this baby up for adoption, she had never wanted to be a mother to a biological child, but suddenly she understood how wonderful, how magical it was to have something that you created held in your arms.

“She will be as beautiful as her mother,” Dembe said as they touched down, the plane hardly making a bump on the ground. The little girl had stopped crying and snuggled against her mother's chest as she fell asleep, the ordeal of being born having taken much of her energy.

“Dembe, where are we?” Liz asked, glancing out the window for the first time.

“Switzerland. Raymond has a home here, deep in the mountains, only reachable by one road. It has spectacular views, every comfort you could ever want, and it is well defended.”

“And he'll be there?”

“In a few days, yes, he will come and see you. After that the decision will come, what you must do. If you must hide, if he must stay away. It will all come, but not yet,” Dembe said softy, laying a gentle hand on her head.

“Thank you, Dembe,” she said, closing her eyes and leaning against his hand. She didn't have the energy left to care that she was sweaty, that her hair was mussed, that there were tear stains on her face and cuts on her palms where she had dug her fingernails in. Nothing could ruin this moment.

Hours later, after a long ride from Geneva into the mountains, Liz was washed and dressed in clean clothes, she and her baby had been examined by a doctor who waited at the house for them, and she was tucked into a large four poster bed, a special indented pillow for her baby next to her, and her daughter lying sleepily on her chest. The baby had woken and had her first meal while they were in the car, and protested to being prodded by the doctor who weighed and measured her and issued a birth certificate, leaving her once more tired and sleeping on Liz's chest.

“What am I going to name you?” she wondered. She had thought of names a few times, but she had never been able to decide. And Tom had convinced her they were having a boy. Sighing she tucked the sleeping baby into her pillow and soon fell asleep herself, one hand curled around the hand of the tiny girl beside her.

~

“Dembe, I'm on my way,” Red told the phone as he leaned back in the seat with a sigh, bringing it to his ear almost as an afterthought. His second jet had finished fueling, everything in the US was dealt with, and he was on his way to Switzerland finally, after three long and incredibly trying days.

“That it good to hear my friend,” Dembe's voice sounded as delighted as Red could ever remember hearing. “You were right, Elizabeth had her baby while we were enroute, a very healthy baby. They have both settled in here nicely.”

Red took a deep breath. He knew it was a possibility, he had suspected it was almost more a guarantee, but it still stuck him in the gut to know that the baby had come and he wasn't there.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” he asked, keeping his voice level.

“I'm sorry, Raymond, she has asked me not to tell you. She wants to tell you herself.” Red swore he could hear the grin on Dembe's face and he sighed.

“Fine. I'll be there in six hours,” he said crisply and he did here Dembe laugh as he hung up the phone.

When Red had landed and made the drive to his mountain sanctuary he had grown more and more scared with every passing mile. He was a confident man, but he couldn't help be plagued by thoughts of Lizzy mad at him, hating him for taking Tom away from her again, as much as she had hated him when she found out that he was responsible for Tom being in her life in the first place. He couldn't curb his anxiety, he couldn't think how he would tell her that Tom was dead, that he died a well deserved death in that church. He didn't want to hurt her any more then he already had, but he feared no matter what he did, he would always hurt her, even if only by accident.

Dembe was waiting at the door when Red arrived and took his bags with a silent smile and Red took a deep breath and made his way to the room where he knew Liz was staying. When he knocked gently her voice floated out to him and he could suddenly easily imagine how radiant she must look.

“Come in,” came the soft call and he pushed the door opening, peeking around it to see her sitting up in bed, the baby cradled to her chest and a warm smile on her face. Her hair was pulled back and she wore a loose white button-down shirt, the sleeves rolled up.

“Oh Lizzy,” he said softly as he entered the room fully and crossed to look down at the baby.

“You came,” Liz said softly, her smile, if possible, widening.

“Of course I came,” Red smiled, sitting carefully on the edge of the bed. “Dembe wouldn't tell me if you had a boy or a girl.”

“Red, meet Cordelia Jennifer,” Liz whispered. “She doesn't have a last name yet...I don't want to use Keen anymore, I don't want her to carry that legacy. And...” Liz took one hand away gently, reaching out for the birth certificate and handing it to Red.

He was still reeling when he looked down at it, not knowing what possessed Liz to pick Jennifer as a middle name, then he saw the space for 'Father' was blank.

“You didn't put Tom's name here,” he said, stating the obvious in his shock.

“No, Red, I didn't,” she smiled. “I don't want her growing up without a father and he wouldn't have been a father to her anyway.”

“What will you do then?” Red asked, daring to look up at her. Her eyes were bright and she was smiling.

“I've done a lot of thinking the last three days, Red, and I want you to be listed as her father,” Liz said softly, never breaking eye contact.

“Me?”

Liz nodded.

“Lizzy, how could you possibly want with an old goat like me around your daughter?” Red asked, shaking his head, looking back at the paper. “Do you know how dangerous it is?”

“Of course I do, but Red...I want you here. I want you in her life, I want you in my life,”

“Lizzy, what are you saying, dearest?” he asked, not daring to hope she was going where he thought she was going.

“What I'm saying, Raymond, is I said yes to the wrong person, twice. I don't want it to happen again,” Liz said firmly, sitting up a little straighter and carefully resettling the baby.

“I wouldn't be the right person to say yes to,” he said, turning away and standing, walking to the window.

“Shouldn't that be my choice?” Liz said as she stood and came to stand beside him, her pajamas rustling softly. “Here, hold her,” she said, nudging Red's arm and handing him the baby, not backing away until he raised his arms and held her carefully.

“I don't deserve it, Lizzy. I don't deserve such happiness,” he said, gazing down at the baby in his arms, remembering his own daughter when she was a newborn and overwhelmed with emotion.

“Red, it took me a long time to figure out, I love you just as much as you love me. Yes,” she said as his eyes glanced up at hers. “I know. When you stop and think, you're not very subtle. I was just oblivious.”

Red chuckled, shaking his head. “I had hoped you might stay that way, my dear Lizzy.”

“This little one opened my eyes, Red, she made me see what I've been missing for so long. She made me see that I am surrounded by love, that I'm not alone.”

“You were never alone,” Red said furiously.

“Will you do it then?” Liz asked, resting a hand on his arm. “Will you be her father?”

“Will you marry me?” he countered, a small smirk dancing on his lips.

“Raymond Reddington, I was an engaged woman less then a week ago,” she gasped, her smile wide and her eyes shining. “I couldn't possibly answer that for at least a whole nother minute,” she giggled.

Red grinned and handed the baby back to Liz, sliding his arms around her waist instead and pulling her close.

“Will you marry me, Elizabeth?” he asked again, whispering in her ear. She only giggled. He drew back slightly, looking in her eyes before he leaned forward and finally, finally after almost three years of being so close to her but so many miles apart, brought their lips together in their first perfect kiss. In Liz's arms Cordelia squirmed as she woke from her nap.

“Will you marry me?” Red asked one more time as he pulled away just a breath and finally Liz answered, her 'yes' just barely ghosting over his lips and to his ears. He more felt then heard and he was kissing her again, breaking away with a chuckle when the baby shoved his chin with her tiny fist.

“It won't be easy,” he said quietly, giving her a finger to play with, which she happily stuck in her mouth and began to gum. “We'll have to run, we'll have to hide. I won't stop what I do, you understand that, don't you?”

Liz nodded. “I've known you for three years, Red. I know what comes with it.”

“You know you'll be a target,” he said sternly.

“I know I'll be safe as long as you're here to protect us,” she said, her eyes so full of trust Red thought his heart might burst.

“Then I will be here forever,” he said and Liz sighed, leaning against him and finally feeling what she had been missing for so many years. Finally feeling like she had come home.

**Author's Note:**

> The baby's nickname is Corde, which I know is a name I pulled from Star Wars but I like it and I think it sounds nice and ominous. Corde Reddington. She'll be a firecracker when she grows up. XD


End file.
